This isn’t hype people. This is the real deal. I am not lying when I say that I have developed the best gluten-free vegan cookies known to man. I do have someone to thank for this – Alton Brown. Alton did a Good Eats episode called Sub Standards that dealt with culinary substitutions and replacements. Thus was born his Chewy Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie.
If anyone didn’t know, I have an extreme and perhaps weird crush on Alton Brown. While even he does sometimes promote things that aren’t complete fact, for the most part he has a great knowledge of food chemistry. This knowledge becomes very important when you are trying to remove things from foods items that upset your system.
As some of you know I am dealing with some health issues right now and am currently going through an elimination diet (not low calories, just removal). In my normal daily diet I have to have chocolate. It is apart of my blood and oxygen supply. It is also one of the few things I don’t have a problem eating.
Since I can’t have peanut butter or dairy (two I my favorite things) I was going to be damned if I didn’t have chocolate. My favorite means of chocolate delivery is via the cookie.
Oh, but wait, I can’t have f**king gluten! What am I supposed to do?
Well, I was enjoying Lucy’s Choc Chip Cookies, an amazing cookie by the way, but I honestly couldn’t justify the cost and apparently the stores can’t keep up with my demands. I said to myself – You must make the cookie!
It turns out that this plan was brilliant on many factors.
1. Homemade cookies taste way better. Who doesn’t enjoy the taste of fresh baked cookies? No one, that is who.
2. You can make the amount you need/want at a time. You buy a box of cookies and it’s see you later (no matter how much you say “oh, just one more”).
3. You have to work for it. It burns more calories than opening a box.
4. You dictate the size. Smaller cookies means more physiological pleasure.
5. Cheaper as a muther! Gluten-free cookies are expensive. My version costs 5 bucks for 60+ cookies. You can get it cheaper than that if you bought bulk in flour and chocolate chips. This cost is based on a simple store trip.
Changes from original recipe
There were a few problems for me with Alton’s recipe for me. First off it had dairy and I can’t eat that right now. The other is the fact that it was pretty high in calories. Now, this recipe is in no way low calories anyway, but it certainly is LOWER in calories than the original. Also, let me make it clear I am not saying anything at all is wrong with regular chocolate chip cookies. That being said, I think I would choose these over tollhouse anyday.
Aside from that, I made small adjustments with sugar content, oils, and flour/starch combos.
Lastly, I have no qualms about saying it is the best, because it is.
Best Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever
Ingredients
11 oz Bob Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1.25 oz Bob’s Mill Potato Starch
7 oz Smart Balance Light Butter
1 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp baking soda
5 oz white sugar
6 oz light brown
1 egg white
40 g oil
2 tbsp almond milk
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
7 oz Vegan Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
Directions
1. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, starch, xanthum gum, and baking soda.
2. In a large bowl, melt butter and mix with the sugars.
3. Add oil, milk, egg white, and extract to the butter/sugar.
4. Slowly add the sifted flour to the sugar and mix together thoroughly.
5. Cover bowl and place in refrigerator for at least an hour.
When ready to bake the cookies
1. Preheat oven to 300F
2. Place parchment paper on a large flat cookie sheet.
3. Use spoon to scoop out the size of cookie dough you want and place it on the baking sheet. The larger the cookies the longer the bake time. Not responsible for taste and quality of oversized cookies.
4. Bake for 20 mins or until lightly brown on the edges. Adjust time as needed for size and oven.
5. Let cool out of the oven for at least 5-7 mins before moving. Serve.
The real trick of these puppies is the slow cook. If you get more of a flaky (instead of chewy) put them on a lower temperature next time. Also, do not touch until cool – seriously. Leave them alone. They need their time to rest even more than normal cookies.
I am happy to report my chocolate fix has been filled. I look forward to the day when I can return to a more normal eating pattern for myself – but so far it hasn’t been so bad.
Related posts:
and off to Whole Foods I shall go. I had a similiar recipe with cardamom than even my girls (4 and 2 and 39) love.
thanks!
Good man!
“My favorite method of chocolate delivery is the cookie.”
Best sentence ever!
I am going to have to try these this weekend! I am a great cook and baker, but I can NEVER get my chocolate cookies to turn out. Now, my oatmeal choc chip ones on the other hand turn out quite nice.
Question, when you say “Let cool out of the oven for at least 5-7 mins before moving. Serve.” Do you let them cool on the cookie sheet or pull the parchment paper with the cookies still on it off onto a cooling rack?
Thanks for sharing Leigh!
I let mine cool on the Parchment Paper. They can’t take an initial move to a cookie sheet out of the oven.
Leigh – I love Alton Brown too! My hubby and I have been watching him for years. We have every show DVR’d! I will definitely try these and I have no problems with gluten or dairy!!!
Leigh, Alton has a book: “I’m Just Here for More Food:
Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking” all about the science behind baking! *wink*
I own them. I take my love seriously
I’ll definitely be trying this recipe! What does it say about me that I have all of these ingredients on hand?
One slight quibble – the recipe title in the body of the post says it’s vegan, but the egg white means it’s not. I’m going to try it using my Ener-G egg replacer and hope for the best, since I am vegan.
OK. These sound awesome. I am going to have to try. One small correction: as listed, the recipe is actually not vegan because of the egg white. But that’s easily substituted with a “flax egg” – 1 tbsp of flaxseed meal mixed with 2-3 tbsp of water. Thanks for sharing with us!
Sierra, you literally beat me to the punch. We were posting at the same time
I have no idea why I put vegan in the sub-titile. I must have been thinking about something else. It has been removed.
You are not the first, Leigh. People often forget about the egg for some reason. My mom recently proclaimed, “I got you a vegan dessert: chocolate covered macaroons!” As I bit into a delicious coconut macaroon (proudly listed on the package as dairy and gluten free, I later discovered), I asked her – “are you sure these are vegan?” since in my pre-vegan days I made macaroons several times with egg whites. And she realized the mistake.
Speaking of which – chocolate covered macaroons are also a gluten free, dairy free way to get your chocolate – in a cookie form as well!
Thanks for the tip
I’ll post a gluten free recipe in the forums
Awesome, thanks for the recipe.
lol, putting chocolate in a dessert dilutes the chocolate! that is my gut feeling, although i like chocolate in most any form. and home baked cookies smell so good.
now i have a strange visual of flax in the shape of an egg…
Ah see Natalie, I believe in lifting the chocolate to a new level with a complementary item. Chocolate on its own is great, but in a cookie with the butter, flour, and texture…oh man, it’s like bee’s to honey.
Yay! I’m excited to try this recipe!
mmm this totally just made me think of the Simpsons episode where everyone turns into chocolate, and Homer grabs a dog and just takes a huge chomp on his ass…mmm…
I’d like to order one dozen, to be shipped immediately.
The company will see what we can do. After all, I DO owe you some cookies.
Leigh,
Given that you’ve mentioned trueprotein.com in the past and also hinted at your own struggles with potential food intolerances/ferreting out possible culprits via the oftentimes tedious process of a food rotation diet, I was wondering if you have used any “hypoallergenic” protein blends from True Protein in your diet.
I am really not a fan of the brown rice/pea/hemp protein powders. Don’t get me wrong, I use them, I am just not a fan of them. Thankfully I can have egg protein right now and it isn’t an issue. A friend hooks me up with Sun Warrior, which tastes the best yet out of all vegan protein powders I have tried. So normally I do egg and I keep it switched up with the Sun Warrior. So I haven’t order their stuff, but the company pays extreme attention to their products and I would imagine their vegan/hypoallergenic brands would be quality. I do know that Sun Warrior does this too, but are more expensive.
I just randomly stumbled across your blog, and I’m excited to see that your gluten free! I will have to give this cookie recipe a go, but I’m pretty partial to using almond flour in my recipes, to lower the carb content. If you have a chance, you should check out Elanaspantry.com. Her cookies have about 5 ingredients, which makes them sooo simple. She also has an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe, that I make my boyfriend at least once a week! I use coconut oil, or grass fed butter instead of grapeseed oil, and use honey instead of agave nectar (which I half) and dark chocolate chips. These treats never last more than a day!
Well, technically my blog is not gluten-free. I am only currently eating that way for health reasons due to some problems I am having. I will be releasing a gluten-free cookbook with a focus on protein in the future, but there are a large variety of recipes and types on my blog. My diet is gluten-free, non-dairy vegetarian right now, but that isn’t how I plan to eat for the rest my life unless I had to.
recipe question – I went to the store but could not find the Bob’s flour. I currently have Garbanzo flour (lol- not for this), Organic Pastry flour, whole wheat flour, and organic buckwheat flour. Will any of these work? Good ol fashoined white is still around
@ protein blend- I use tp.com 70/30 rice/gemma with stevia and natural choc premium flavor. It’s delicious! But I got too fancy and added hemp to the last batch and I have 5 pounds of retch to go thru
got the Seal of approval from my girls! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiyS5mZHBR4
I love that video! Thanks for sharing!
[...] Best Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever | Leigh Peele [...]
My favorite thing in the whole world to eat is warm chocolate chip cookies with ice cream on top!!! I will have try this version and see how it compares!
I love that your recipe includes weighed ingredients as opposed to measured in cup measurements. I’m moving more and more towards listing ingredients in this way. It’s a much more accurate way of measuring. I have a recipe for gluten free chocolate chip cookies on my blog which I will eventually convert to weighed measurements as well.
http://iamglutenfree.blogspot.com/2007/03/homerun-gf-chocolate-chip-cookie.html
Love your blog and will return again, for sure!
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this looks delish!!!! thanks for the recipe!